28 
Psyche 
[Marc/. 
the Baltic Amber, Wheeler (1914) found that a number 
of Indomalayan genera and others which are tropicopolitan 
at the present time, had a much broader range, including 
northern Europe, during the Oligocene. However, Myrmo- 
teras was not among them. Such negative information 
cannot show that these ants had not yet evolved, and on 
the other hand the primitive nature of the genus is a strong 
argument in favor of its origin at least by the Eocene or 
perhaps in Cretaceous times. Its absence from the Baltic 
Amber is a matter of conjecture, for advanced formicine 
genera like Prenolepis, Lasius, Formica, and Camponotus 
are abundantly represented and should have evolved no 
earlier than Myrmoteras. In this connection it should be 
noted that Plagiolepis is represented by a number of amber 
species. Peculiarities of behavior could hardly have kept 
Myrmoteras out of the resin traps for a great many ants 
of diverse habits are known from the amber. It seems 
reasonable to conclude that either the species of Myrmo- 
teras were so rare (as they are today) that their chances 
of being preserved in fossil resin were drastically reduced, 
or that the range of the genus did not include the localities 
where amber was being formed. The latter possibility ap- 
peals to the writer to be much more probable. 
The present distribution of these insects is outlined 
briefly in the list below. The reader is referred also to the 
adjoining map. 
Myrmoteras bakeri Wheeler. Sandakan, Borneo — Type 
locality 
Myrmoteras binghami Forel. Thaungyin Valley, Tenas- 
serim, Burma — Type locality 
Myrmoteras barbouri Creighton. Singdanglalia, Java — 
Type locality 
Myrmoteras donisthorpei Wheeler. Mt. Matang, Sara- 
wak, Borneo — Type locality 
Myrmoteras mjoebergi Wheeler. Mt. Tibang, Dutch Bor- 
neo — Type locality 
Myrmoteras kemneri Wheeler. Tjibodas, Java — Type 
locality 
Myrmoteras karnyi Gregg. Sipora, Mentawai Islands — 
Type locality 
